The great 2011 Mississippi River flood caused more than $2.8 billion in damage, according to a new report by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Meanwhile, the Corps’ system of levees and floodwalls prevented an additional $234 billion in damage.
The Corps took drastic action in 2011 to manage the flood water. Those strategies included filling reservoirs to the brink and activating three floodways, like the Birds Point-New Madrid floodway in Southeast Missouri.
133,000 acres of farmland was flooded to take pressure off flood control systems in Cairo, Illinois, Fulton County, Kentucky, Tipton County, Tennessee and communities like Commerce and Caruthersville in Missouri. Restoring the levee has cost approximately $30 million up to this point.
The Mississippi River’s flood control system suffered preliminary damage of two billion dollars.
The report finds the system worked as designed, even though the flood highlighted some vulnerabilities such as water underseepage and massive sand boils in Cairo.
There were no casualties in the flood.